“I have come to believe that hard times are not just meaningless suffering and that something good might turn up at any moment. That's a big change for someone who used to come to in the morning feeling sentenced to another day of life. When I wake up today, there are lots of possibilities. I can hardly wait to see what's going to happen next.”

“I simply had to believe in a Spirit of the Universe, who knew neither time nor limitation.”

“To this day, I am amazed at how many of my problems - most of which had nothing to do with drinking, I believed - have become manageable or have simply disappeared since I quit drinking.”

“I have found that the process of discovering who I really am begins with knowing who I really don't want to be.”

“Through the years I had quit on everything that ever mattered: college, going for promotions, relationships - at least the relationships that demanded any work.”

“Identifying, they said, was trying to see how I was like the people I was with. Comparing, they told me, was looking for differences, usually seeing how I was better than others.”

“One day at a time.”